End in sight for Athlone water woes?

Athlone could finally see an end to months of unplanned water outages after Irish Water confirmed that the existing Water Treatment Plant can now supply the required demands of the town.

In response to a query from Longford/Westmeath Fianna Fail Deputy, Robert Troy, a spokesperson for Irish Water said they do not envisage “any further unplanned interrruptions to supply, relating to insufficient capacity at the plant, due to the fact that the existing Treatment Plant “can now supply the required demand in Athlone, which was not always the case between 2016-2019.”

Irish Water pointed out in their communication with Deputy Troy that they have “significantly increased leakage reduction in Athlone town” by working in conjunction with Westmeath County Council since 2017, and they claimed that the benefits of this work have been seen in the town “in the last six months.”

The utility company also confirmed that they are currently installing “a temporary plant” to improve the capacity of the existing WTP this year. “This can be used as a contingency should demand drastically increase again” they said.

Irish Water also stated that work is currently progressing on the design and construction of “significant upgrade works” to the Water Treatment Plant. “This will likely commence in 2020 and will be completed in 2024.”